I Want to Keep Windows 7 Forever

[Rokkor]

U guys switching over to Linux... BEWARE:

Years ago, I stopped using Ubuntu coz I noticed right around midnight everyday, Ubuntu would upload 100's MBs worth of data to some unknown address. I wouldn't have noticed had I not been checking network activity around that time. This incident freak me out, so I stopped trusting Ubuntu, Mint etc. Who's to say NSA didn't pay those guys to install "backdoors" in their distro. Sure the projects r open source, but can u really trust the files u get that have been pre-compiled???

Now, don't lose hope, anyone thinking of Linux I can recommend this Deepin Linux (v20 next major release out on around Jan 20,2020):

Deepin v20 Taskbar Preview (In case the above vid doesn't work in your browser)

The reason I trust Deepin over Ubutu/Mint/etc. are four-fold:

1. Deepin already sold with Huawei laptops. Imagine the repercusions to Huawei if Deepin was found to contain backdoors.

2. Chinese gov PCs gonna be Microsoft (and Apple) free starting 2020. They've only got 2 choices: Kylin OS or Deepin. Imagine the fit the CCP gonna have if they discovered some company in China was installing backdoors stealing data from the government...

3. It looks like a Win7 clone, new users should adapt to the interface pretty fast.

4. Available in English and other languages.

NSA backdoors??? pfft....Conspiracy theories aside, what you said just isn't true of Ubuntu today or Mint or most any Linux distro. Ubuntu at one time had hardware type reports that were optional and went to Canonical which is the company that develops Debian and Ubuntu and other Linux OS. Ubuntu changed the setting. Mint never had it. This 5 minute video explains better than I can. The Lack of Spying in Linux Mint

Just for your FYI look up 'Deepin and telemetry' you'll see that Deepin was called out for including telemetry in a prior build.

 

[William2020]

NSA backdoors??? pfft....Conspiracy theories aside, what you said just isn't true of Ubuntu today or Mint or most any Linux distro. Ubuntu at one time had hardware type reports that were optional and went to Canonical which is the company that develops Debian and Ubuntu and other Linux OS. Ubuntu changed the setting. Mint never had it. This 5 minute video explains better than I can. The Lack of Spying in Linux Mint

Just for your FYI look up 'Deepin and telemetry' you'll see that Deepin was called out for including telemetry in a prior build.

Lies lies and slander. Western media r quick to slander anything coming out of China. Huawei 5G telecom devices have backdoors to the PLA. Puleez. The telemetry in question was Deepin collecting info about the types of computer used when connected to their app store. Just general info any website would have collected about anybody.

Deepin even went so far as to remove this telemetry immediately after a few websites whined about it. Thus the 'Deepin telemetry' in question no longer exists.

As I said before, the Chinese gov only got two choices left after saying no to Windows for 2020 and beyond: Kylin OS and Deepin. The companies behind these two are gonna b in serious deep trouble if the Chinese gov ever finds any backdoors in them...


(BTW, a little OT, but it seems Huawei is not only leader of 5G connectivity but Wi-Fi 6 as well. I read somewhere Huawei currently has the most enterprise Wi-Fi 6 market share coz Wi-Fi6 rocks -- it leaves no deadzones where devices may get faint/little signals.)

 

[blue skies]

Nice article but there are better ways to get to Linux Mint. First, I recommend watching this video by Joe Collins an installing Linux Mint. Joe has many other videos on Linux and has an excellent forum where you can go for advice. There are many other excellent videos but this one I found to be best for a rank newbie. It's what got me started. I've also received excellent advice from members of the forum.

Joe Collins is great. I also highly recommend this video series to anyone switching to Linux Mint - YouTube
I found it extremely helpful!

Not all hardware and peripherals will work on Linux. Printers are notorious for that.

That's true... but I was very surprised when I started Linux Mint for the first time, my networked Brother printer was already installed. I didn't even have to do anything at all. Linux Mint found it on the network and took care of everything. I was especially surprised because Windows 7 had made me jump through hoops to install the drivers for that same printer and get it connected. It depends on the particular brand and model, but I've noticed Linux Mint users are often surprised that their printers are set up automatically like mine was.

Of course, you can test your hardware while using the live USB to make sure everything works.

I'm at the point now, the only time I even fire up a Win 7 machine is because I haven't moved all my data to my Linux machine (yet, it will take time because I have a lot of windows related docs that will need weeding out) or there is a hardware compatibility issue.

I got to that point very quickly, and find myself avoiding starting up my Windows 7 laptop. The only thing I haven't really tried on Linux Mint is backing up DVDs and converting the video, only because I like the Windows programs I've been using for that for the past decade. Old habits. (And if I ever get my computer with the TV tuner card working again, I will probably prefer Windows 7 for Windows Media Center.)

I totally agree. Just don't over research in it. Many things will be difficult to impossible to grasp until you roll up your sleeves and dig in.

Oh definitely! The videos are great but nothing beats actually trying it out for yourself.

One of the best pieces of advice Collins gives is to get an older computer to start out with so you still have the machine you are used to to bail you out.

I did that. After trying live USBs and also trying various distros in VirtualBox, I ended up installing Peppermint OS on a fifteen year old Windows XP laptop with a broken screen (had to use a monitor) and only 1gb of RAM! It was great to play with and have a bit of experience before I went ahead and bought the new computer I was planning to buy for Linux.

One good reason is that dual booting between windows and Linux is fraught with complications and unreliability. Someone very familiar with both platforms can (and often do) do so successfully but most people will eventually have problems dual booting, especially at the beginning. Who needs that added complication when first learning how to use Linux?

Yeah, I originally thought I would set up a dual boot, but then decided it wasn't worth the added complications. As it was, I found Linux Mint (and Peppermint OS) very easy to use and haven't had much of a learning curve at all. That video series I linked at the beginning of this post was super helpful, and I just watched a bunch of other videos, read a few articles and asked a few questions in the forum... and never looked back.

NSA backdoors??? pfft....Conspiracy theories aside, what you said just isn't true of Ubuntu today or Mint or most any Linux distro. Ubuntu at one time had hardware type reports that were optional and went to Canonical which is the company that develops Debian and Ubuntu and other Linux OS. Ubuntu changed the setting. Mint never had it. This 5 minute video explains better than I can. The Lack of Spying in Linux Mint

Just for your FYI look up 'Deepin and telemetry' you'll see that Deepin was called out for including telemetry in a prior build.

That's been my understanding, too.


Edited to Add: This is also a great video for Linux Mint beginners. It's only 21minutes long and well worth a view -- YouTube

 

[RoWin7]

I'm believer in a dual-boot system using separate hard drive for each OS and at power up I choose what OS to boot into Linux or Windows.

Why not have the best of both OS worlds.

Someone suggested that to me for my 3rd computer, but I have to install all my programs twice.

 

[RolandJS]

I wish I was Somebody worthy of being spied on by our government. -- Roland Dangerfield

 

[EmeraldShard]

I've tried Mint myself but only from a bootable media. Maybe two years ago-ish. I remember being pretty impressed with it given that I've virtually never used Linux before (except for an experiment where I installed some fork of Ubuntu onto my spare drive in an attempt to dual-boot several years back... I remember being profoundly bewildered, and I only even remembered the attempt when I tried to reuse that drive in my new machine last week and had to format the disk). So I'll definitely look at some of the guides/vids linked here for Mint. Good to know there's always a back-pocket option.

That being said, I'm sticking with 7 on the new machine until it becomes unfeasible on a software level first (mostly the browser as there's nothing else I care to run that actually requires regular updates).

I don't have too much to contribute to the "backdoors" discussion, but for whatever my peanut-gallery opinion's worth... seems to me that if a dev installed backdoors or telemetry, it's gonna be damn near impossible to trust them again even if they do take it out when they get called on it. I know I'm not alone in feeling that way about MS.

Other than that, I mostly share the OP's opinion. I consider Win7 the last good Windows (a line that maaaaybe includes XP and definitely includes 2000, 98se, 95 and 3.1 before that). I upgraded my laptop to 10 a couple years back just to give it the college try, and I can't stand all the crap it does. Lucky that I happened to have Pro on it so I could kill the auto-updating by group policy or I'd have probably hurled it into traffic by now.

 

[freeagent]

Seeing many of us already have Android phones, why not ditch MS and get a Chromebook?

I can do almost everything that I do on my Windows laptop on my Galaxy phone. A bigger screen and a keyboard would help.

Better to have just one company stealing your data

 

[Barman58]

If I can make a prediction ... ...

"On the 15th January 2020, the world will not end, the sky will not fall, and the cheese will stay where you put it"

As time passes ...

the intrinsic security of Windows 7 will be eroded by changes in the ecosystem it is in, (I did consider saying advances in malware but that is an Oxymoron of great stature).

The availability of compatible software, hardware and Drivers will reduce until eventually there will only be a set of limited options.

There is no problem using Windows 7 after End of life without Microsoft's paid support.

You should run the best anti Malware you can whilst you can find it if you decide to risk the internet
.
you should back-up every time you add new software or hardware to the system (both Before and after ) in addition to your regular backups

 

[GoldenDog]

Run windows 7 4 ever

most windows 7 programs work with windows 10 anyway so whats the problem?

 

[RoWin7]

most windows 7 programs work with windows 10 anyway so whats the problem?

Half of my programs are 32bit from Win XP. They're not ones that are unsafe in an older version, but they probably won't run on 10. Nor will my printer or webcam. I go along with what Barman said, until I'm forced by hardware changes to use 10. Maybe by then M$ will have knocked out the bugs.

 

[hubgod]

I have been running windows 10 for a few weeks now on a dual boot.
Sorry but windows 7 wins for me.
10 looks terrible, Is as slow as a sack of potatoes and i would need too upgrade my hardware to almost top of the line to run it.

 

[Kari]

Being sick, feeling lousy both physically and mentally, I must tell that reading this thread is the best medicine. How refreshing and funny to get inside view of how tinfoil hat brigade is still going strong!

Kari

 

[RoWin7]

Who are the tinfoil(actually aluminum foil) hat wearers?

 

[Barman58]

I have my own opinion on Operating Systems, If you spend all day tweaking your OS when do you find time to do anything constructive with your computer, Anything from "Talk To" people on Social Media to designing the next Interplanetary Probe to Uranus.

I've been in this industry for a lot of years and every few years you get the same hullabaloo when one OS is replaced by another OS - It's the natural order, hardware and uses evolve so eventually the old make way for the new. There is the slightly amusing thing that the same people that are blogging now about never wanting to leave Windows 7 were the same as those who ten years ago who stated they never wanted to leave XP.

If anyone wants to stay with Windows 7 they have that right, they may be a potential risk to those running a more modern fully supported OS, as they become more and more unprotected, and assuming they remain online, (serving as parts of a BOT Net), but that's always the case

 

[win7guy284]

I'd personally much rather be """unprotected"""/cut off from updates than M$ having real-time access to everything i type, do and save on my own computer (this has pretty much been proven to be hard-baked into windows 10's very essence - You cannot turn this type of tracking off on there no matter how many anti-spying/pro-privacy tools you use and which settings you change, it will still connect to redmond irregardless).

I doubt that "tinfoil hat"-type name-calling/flinging around ad hominem would convince anyone truly conscious of these facts to make the downgrade to botnet10 - Also, if it would be as easy to track/spy on users in windows 7 as it is with windows 10 then neo-micro$oft would not be literally giving out windows 10 for free imo. You just continually pay with your data and personal information instead after having made the downgrade to windows 10 (Aside from the spying, w7 is also just faster and snappier out of the box in general, there are benchmarks that prove this).

Windows 7 will continue being perfectly usable after tomorrow and not go away any time soon, even more so if 0patch makes good on their promises or ReactOS becomes a viable alternative to standard windows in the future.

 

[Golden]

I'd personally much rather be """unprotected"""/cut off from updates than M$ having real-time access to everything i type, do and save on my own computer (this has pretty much been proven to be hard-baked into windows 10's very essence - You cannot turn this type of tracking off on there no matter how many anti-spying/pro-privacy tools you use and which settings you change, it will still connect to redmond irregardless).

Wow, just wow :shock:

 

[z3r010]

I'd love to be important enough to be spied upon

 

[hubgod]

I am all for progress and we have all seen failures of Os`s before maybe windows 10 is the new Vista and Windows 11 will wow us all maybe.

 

[EmeraldShard]

Wow, "tinfoil hat?" Haven't heard that one before.

All kidding aside, it's a credit to this forum in general that it took me two weeks to come across the same kind of dismissive trolling that any other outlet seems to provide the moment "Win7" escapes your keyboard these days. Around here I've gotten actual answers. Probably wouldn't have been able to get my new 7Pro desktop running otherwise.

But for the record: I gave Win10 the college try. For a good three years and counting, now. My current laptop came with 7 on it and since my desktop at the time had 7, I figured I'd go ahead with the upgrade just for versatility reasons. Since then I've had to laboriously go through the registry and group policy to turn off (most of) the telemetry, fight the update system several times to prevent auto-rebooting before turning them off completely because it refused to listen, run O&OShutup10 whose changes frequently get reverted, learn that 10 ignores any instructions in the hosts file to avoid connecting to its severs necessitating that you block them on the router level (which is pointless since, y'know, this is a laptop and it has to go on other networks sometimes), and put up with the terrible "app" form replacements to Windows accessories (e.g. Calculator, Paint) and large parts of Control Panel because apparently a stripped-down mobile interface is what we all want for our desktop machines. And for all that, the number of actual benefits gained over 7 as far as I'm concerned remains a big fat zero (unless you're going to argue that whatever post-EOS security updates MS releases for 10 are more important to security than, say, common sense, in which case I don't know what to tell you).

You'll note that none of the above can be blamed on hardware quirkiness for a machine that wasn't designed for 10. If I were including that, I might blame 10 for the fact I've had to remove the laptop's optical drive completely from device manager lest the machine crash within a minute of detecting it. I've been saying for the last year or two that the moment the laptop gets bricked for any software-based reason, I'm restoring its factory image and never going back to 10. Hasn't happened yet, but maybe 2020 will be the year.

As hubgod alluded to, no OS is perfect and every new Windows has made some missteps. 7 is no exception IMO. But in every Windows OS upgrade since the 3.1 days, I've found each new OS to be either good or, at worst, a mixed bag (except for 8, but let's not talk about 8). I specifically consider 10 a downgrade because it actually requires more tweaking than 7 to make it workable, and because for all its faults, it brings practically nothing new to the table for anyone who couldn't care less about MS' attempts to create a multi-platform quasi-mobile ecosystem and just wants a functional desktop machine. Obviously, at some point it will become completely impractical to find suitable hardware or software for 7, but only due to the well-established march of time (read: planned obsolescence) rather than any good reason.

So I wonder: am I a tinfoil hat because after three years I made an informed decision to stick with 7? Or because I even bothered to try turning 10's crap off?

 

[DMHolt57]

I'd love to be important enough to be spied upon

Amen